Features of the administrative-command system in the USSR. Conditions for the formation of the command-administrative system of the Russian economy
In 1929, two projects of the first five-year plan were discussed: the Gosplan project (moderate rates of development, the predominance of the private sector in agriculture) and the VSNKh project (high rates of development, significant increase in public investment in agriculture). The VSNKh project won. The consequence of this was course towards “complete collectivization” . The planned collectivization figures increased from 5 million. peasant farms up to 30 million by the end of 1929
The program was adopted fight against the kulaks. The “kulaks” were divided into three categories: counter-revolutionary elements; enemies who do not offer active resistance; loyal to Soviet power.
The first two categories were subject to arrest and deportation to Siberia and Kazakhstan with confiscation of property. The third moved to virgin lands within the region. Dispossession commissions worked locally (secretary of the party committee, chairman of the executive committee of the local Soviet, head of the local GPU).
As a result, from January to March 1930 alone, over two thousand anti-collective farm uprisings occurred. In 1930, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks issued a resolution “On the fight against distortions of the party line in the collective farm movement.” A mass exodus of peasants from collective farms began; the pace of grain procurements decreased sharply.
The authorities were forced to the following measures:
Severe punishments were introduced for petty theft of collective farm property;
25 thousand workers were sent to the villages for collectivization;
The apparatus was cleaned due to sabotage of grain procurements;
Food detachments were revived for the purpose of audits and punitive expeditions.
Extortions from collective farms reached 50-60% of the harvest, but the state thus received 2 times more grain than in last years NEP. The selected grain was mainly supplied to Germany in exchange for loans for the purchase of industrial equipment.
On the eve of collectivization and during it, zoning (1926-1929). The old administrative structure (province - district - volost) was replaced by a new one: edge (region) - district - district. In 1930, intermediate links - districts (except for national districts) were eliminated. At the second stage of zoning (1934-35), the disaggregation of territories and regions took place.
After the completion of complete collectivization, village assemblies as bodies of community self-government were abolished. Instead, agricultural production conferences at village councils, rural public courts, and groups of the poor began to work. During collectivization, new management structures are formed. In 1929 - the Union-Republican People's Commissariat of Agriculture, in 1932 the People's Commissariat of Grain and Livestock State Farms was separated from it. A collective farm center was formed under the People's Commissariat of Agriculture; procurement work was supervised by the Procurement Committee (Komzag) under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
Control over agricultural production was exercised through state machine and tractor stations (MTS). Collective farms rented equipment and paid with produce. Procurement into the “bins of the Motherland” was a mandatory part of the tax; failure to comply with it entailed property and criminal sanctions. The opening of collective farm markets was permitted if mandatory procurements were fulfilled. In 1934, new tax rates for individual owners were established.
In 1935, complete collectivization was completed. Its results were consolidated by the “Approximate Charter of the Agricultural Artel” (1933):
1) land plots, livestock, equipment, and outbuildings were transferred into collective ownership;
2) collective farms were obliged to conduct farming according to the state plan;
3) admission to the collective farm was carried out by the general meeting;
4) the order of fulfillment of obligations was established: supplies to the state and MTS, creation of seed funds and funds social support, payments to collective farmers on workdays (on a residual basis);
5) the main form of labor organization is a team; as a form of payment - workday.
In the industrial sector, the first five-year plan envisaged achieving an increase in industrial production by 136%, an increase in labor productivity by 110%, and a reduction in the cost of industrial products by 35%. Unconditional priority was given to heavy industry (78% of capital investments).
The main sources of funds were agriculture; forced loans from the population; emission of money (the money supply increased twice as fast as industrial output); vodka trade; export of grain, fuel, timber. However, these colossal injections were unable to stimulate high rates of industrial growth (in 1928-1929 - 23%; in 1933 - 5%). The plans were not implemented due to a lack of raw materials, fuel, and equipment. Scarce resources were distributed among impact projects (50-60 construction projects), which were set as an example for the whole country.
The first five-year plan was not fulfilled according to any indicator. The second five-year plan was also not fully implemented: out of 46 indicators, only 10 were achieved. However, the focus on the intensive path of development played a positive role: labor productivity doubled. In just a few years, from a country importing cars, the USSR turned into a country producing equipment.
There were also many contradictions in the personnel policy of the young state. In 1928, a campaign was launched to combat the sabotage of the “old specialists”, which resulted in the massive expulsion of old personnel from the State Planning Committee, the Supreme Economic Council, the People's Commissariat for Agriculture and the People's Commissariat of Finance. The promotion of workers from enterprises (“practitioners”) to leadership positions did not improve the quality of management. The fight against excesses began, the condemnation of the so-called “special food”. Some previously introduced discriminatory measures against specialists were abolished, including restricting the access of their children to higher education.
Since September 1932, enterprises have introduced work books with recording of all places of work, as well as a registration system. In the same year, penalties for failure to show up for work were established, such as dismissal, deprivation of food cards, and eviction from living space. The power of directors increased, the management triangle (secretary of the party committee, director, chairman of the trade union committee) was abolished and unity of command of directors was introduced.
WITH late 1920s there is an increase in planning and regulatory principles in the economy. The authorities called on enterprises to turn their attention to the plan. Since 1929, trusts and syndicates have been guided exclusively by planned indicators. In 1932, a ban was introduced on shops and private shops. In 1929, the state carried out a credit reform, as a result of which commercial lending was banned, the State Bank became the only distributor of short-term loans for special purposes. From that time on, lending plans were drawn up jointly by the Supreme Economic Council and the State Bank, that is, the credit system was centralized.
Public administration in the 1930s. continued the trend combination of functional and sectoral leadership principles. The functional principle of management is guidance on individual areas of activity: planning, financing, material and technical supply (Gosplan, People's Commissariat of Finance, OGPU). The sectoral management principle is the management of a certain sector of the economy from one body in all areas of activity.
In the 1930s there was a gradual increase sectoral principle management, as evidenced by the formation of a system of sectoral industrial people's commissariats, which took place in several stages:
1932 – 1934 – abolition of the Supreme Economic Council and the creation on the basis of this structure of the People’s Commissariats of Heavy, Light, Forestry and Food Industry;
1936 - 1937 – disaggregation of the People’s Commissariat of Heavy Industry; it separates the independent People's Commissariat of Defense Industry and the People's Commissariat of Mechanical Engineering;
1939 - general disaggregation of industrial people's commissariats.
Six new people's commissariats were created on the basis of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry; on the basis of the People's Commissariat of Defense Industry - four; on the basis of the People's Commissariat of Mechanical Engineering - three. Other people's commissariats were also disaggregated. As a result, the number of all-Union People's Commissariats increased to 25 by 1940; the number of union-republican ones is up to 16. To coordinate the work of such a significant number of departments under the Council of People's Commissars, several economic councils were created in 1940, uniting the people's commissariats of related industries.
So, in the USSR in the 1930s. formed administrative-command management system – a special type of public administration, characterized by the predominant use of directive methods and the widespread use of administrative coercion in the economy.
The objective prerequisites for the formation of the AKS were:
The need for a unified economic policy aimed at equalizing the levels of development of different regions;
The very nature of the socialist system, based on the replacement of private property with “public property”;
Solving the problems of accelerated modernization of the country in difficult foreign economic circumstances.
There were also subjective factors in the formation of the AKS:
The low level of general and political culture of the population, which allowed a narrow layer of the party-Soviet bureaucracy to usurp power and simply dispose of state property;
Voluntary methods of leadership, underestimation of the national characteristics of individual territories on the part of the ruling elite.
The administrative-command management system created by the Bolsheviks was not something alien to Russian traditions. It corresponded to the internal predisposition of the people precisely to this type of state building.
After the victory of the October Revolution, the question arose in the Bolshevik Party about ways and methods of further development of the country. The socialist revolution could develop in a democratic or administrative-command way. This question - the question of development strategy - became the main one in the internal party struggle in the 20s. This struggle of ideas and views within the Bolshevik Party grew into a struggle for leadership and was reflected in the future fate of Soviet society. In the 30s in the country an administrative-command system was formed. She represented: political field– complete removal of the people from power and governance. The establishment of comprehensive totalitarian state power, the formation of bureaucratic centralized methods of managing society from the army to culture, etc., the curtailment of democracy, the Soviets as bodies of people's self-government become simply a fiction. Under the slogan of class struggle, the fight against dissent is being waged. A climate of fear and intimidation was created in the country, and constant denunciations and repression were practiced. About 12 million people were imprisoned in concentration camps annually, i.e. a fifth of all those employed at that time in the branches of material production. Entire peoples were declared enemies, expelled from their territories and resettled. Of the “punished peoples,” the Poles were the first to be exiled. Back in the mid-20s, Polish national regions in Belarus were liquidated, and in 1936 Poles were resettled from Ukraine to Kazakhstan. In 1937, 190 thousand Koreans and 8 thousand Chinese were taken from Buryatia, Khabarovsk, Primorsky territories, and Chita region to Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Before the war, Finns were evicted from Karelia and the Leningrad region. From the Volga region, Moscow, Voronezh, Tambov and others, 1 million Soviet Germans were evicted to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. In 1941, the peoples of the Baltic states were evicted. In 1944, Crimean Tatars, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Kalmyks, Karachais, a total of about 650 thousand people, etc., were evicted from Crimea and the North Caucasus. This process continued after the war. The goal of Stalin's movements was to break society by changing the geography of people's residence, their status, occupations, and also to instill fear.
Totalitarianism manifested itself in foreign policy in imposing their point of view on other peoples.
In economics- the multi-structure system was eliminated and the so-called unified public ownership of the means of production was established. In that situation, when the people were removed from power, from disposing of this property, this property became the property of the party-state bureaucracy, but not the people. Non-economic administrative-command methods of management were formed. Economic policy was based on stimulating the economy, on horse racing, the economy developed at the expense of the people. There was strict centralized planning of the entire economy. Accelerated industrialization was carried out at the expense of the peasantry. Forced collectivization was carried out in agriculture.
IN social sphere – massive repressions were carried out against people, the standard of living of the Soviet people was low. Real income in the first 10 years of industrialization decreased, the quality of life deteriorated, especially in the countryside. The rapid growth of monetary incomes, caused by the exorbitant issue of money, was offset by an even faster rise in prices; In cities and on construction sites, a card supply system spread.
In the village, where there was no rationing, every bad harvest year caused terrible famine, mortality increased, and natural population growth slowed down. Soviet Union has become a country with a declining population.
In ideology– a cult of the leader, a regime of personal power was formed, a class approach to ideology, culture, and the suppression of free personality were in effect.
Long years of existence of such a system have created a type adequate to this system social psychology, specific system life values and priorities. Shifts in mass consciousness are, according to some historians, the most difficult legacy of administrative command system.
Could a different society be built? There are 2 points of view on this problem. Some historians say that if not for Stalin, such a system would not have existed. The second point of view is that there could not be another society in the Soviet country, that the administrative-command system most fully corresponded to the level of development of the country, to the type of political thinking that is called barracks-communist, authoritarian. The lecture will discuss this issue in detail.
It is necessary to highlight objective conditions, which gave rise to the administrative-command system. There was a hostile external environment. The Soviet country had to build socialism alone; there was no experience in carrying out socialist transformations. The country was economically backward and experienced major political upheavals - revolution, civil war, which undoubtedly affected society. The working class, which was supposed to become the support of the new government, was small; the peasant population predominated. The country needed short time reach the level of advanced developed countries.
But the most important factor was the lack of strong democratic traditions in Russia. Under tsarism, the population could not develop democratic skills. People had no idea about democracy, the value of democracy, the need for democracy. Society was at a breaking point, it was not civilized enough, i.e. was culturally and socially backward. Old traditions have collapsed, and new ones have not yet been formed. All this predetermined the enormous role of the state, the need to concentrate all power in the hands of the state.
These objective conditions could be changed or mitigated subjective factor– the party, its leaders. In the Bolshevik Party, as a result of the struggle for power, the best cadres were destroyed. In the 1920s, there was a sharp increase in the number of party members due to the influx of new members with minimal political experience and theoretical knowledge. It was they who supported Stalin and his version of socialism. These ideas about socialism most fully corresponded to the ideas of the masses. It was a simplified version, fast and understandable.
It is this version of socialism – the administrative-command system – that was created in the Soviet country. When assessing this society, it is necessary to keep in mind that there is a point of view: it was the administrative-command system that ensured the progress of the USSR, the country became industrial, and a developed scientific and technical potential was formed. Another point of view is that this system slowed down the progress of the country, it came at a high cost to society, at the cost of a huge number of lost human lives and broken destinies, and the country’s problems could have been solved differently.
CHRONOLOGY OF EVENTS
April 7, 1930–Decree on the expansion of the system of labor camps transferred to the Main Directorate of Camps (GULAG) within the OGPU.
January 12, 1933–Decision of the Central Committee to hold a section of the party (as a result, its number is reduced by more than 1 million people).
January 26-February 10, 1934-XVII Party Congress. During the secret vote, a significant portion of the delegates voted against Stalin for the new composition of the Central Committee.
January 1936-The beginning of a new purge in the party, accompanied by mass arrests.
August 19-24, 1936– an open political trial of prominent party figures G.E. Zinoviev, L.B. Kamenev and others, which ended with the execution of all the defendants.
October 1936–Cleaning in the NKVD apparatus.
May-June 1937–Purge of army command staff and republican party leadership.
1937-1938– Mass repressions against the command staff of the USSR Armed Forces. More than 40 thousand commanders were repressed. Two thirds of the senior command was destroyed.
DICTIONARY OF PERSONALIES
Beria Lavrenty Pavlovich (1899-1953)– former People's Commissar (Minister) of Internal Affairs of the USSR, First Deputy Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, member of the Presidium of the CPSU Central Committee. In July 1953, the Plenum of the CPSU Central Committee for criminal, anti-party and anti-state actions removed him from the Central Committee and expelled him from the party. Shot. Bears direct responsibility for the mass repressions of the late 30s - early 50s.
Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich (1895-1940)- Soviet party statesman. Since 1935 - Chairman of the Party Control Committee under the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and at the same time Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. In 1936-1938. - People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Commissioner General state security(1937), one of the main perpetrators of repression (“Yezhovshchina”). In 1939 he was arrested and executed.
Stalin (Dzhugashvili) Joseph Vissarionovich (pseudonym - Koba) (1878-1953)- Soviet politician and statesman. In the Social Democratic movement since 1898. After 1903 he joined the Bolsheviks. In 1917-1922. - People's Commissar for Nationalities, at the same time in 1919-1922. - People's Commissar of State Control, Workers' and Peasants' Inspectorate, since 1918 - member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Republic. In 1922-1953. General Secretary of the Party Central Committee. In the 1920s during the struggle for leadership in the party and state, he led the party and established a totalitarian regime in the country. At the 20th Party Congress (1956), Stalin's personality cult was exposed.
DICTIONARY OF TERMS AND CONCEPTS
GULAG– Main Directorate of Camps of the NKVD (MVD) of the USSR. Used to refer to the system of concentration camps that existed under Stalin.
Dictatorship (lat.- unlimited power)- all-encompassing political, economic, ideological power exercised certain group people led by their leader. It is characterized by the absence of separation of powers, the suppression of democracy and the rule of law, the introduction of terror, and the establishment of an authoritarian regime of personal power.
Industrialization– transition from manual labor to machine labor in all sectors of the economy. The process of creating large-scale machine production in industry and other sectors of the economy. In the USSR it was carried out from the late 20s. based on the priority of heavy industry in order to overcome the gap with the West, create the material and technical base of socialism, and strengthen defense capabilities. Unlike other countries of the world, industrialization in the USSR began with heavy industry and was carried out by limiting the consumption of the entire population, expropriating the remaining funds of private city owners and robbing the peasantry.
Collectivization– the policy of forced transformation of agriculture in the late 20s - 30s. on the basis of “dekulakization” and the establishment of collective forms of farming (collective farms) with the socialization of a significant part of peasant property. The masses of wealthy peasants (kulaks), middle peasants and part of the poor (“sub-kulaks”) were subjected to repression. By decree of the President of the USSR of August 13, 1990, the repressions carried out during the collectivization period were declared illegal.
Cult of personality- admiration for someone, veneration, exaltation. In the USSR, the period from 1929 to 1953. defined as the personality cult of J.V. Stalin. A dictatorial regime was established, democracy was eliminated, and during his lifetime Stalin was credited with a decisive influence on the course of historical development.
"New Opposition"- a group in the CPSU (b), formed in 1925 by G. E. Zinoviev and L. B. Kamenev. She spoke at the 15th Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with a proposal to remove I.V. Stalin from the post of General Secretary of the Central Committee, orient National economy for agricultural exports and industrial imports. The congress condemned this speech. Later, almost all members of the group were repressed.
Repression (lat.– suppression)- a punitive measure, punishment applied by punitive authorities.
Totalitarianism (lat.- whole, complete) - state power exercising complete (total) control over all aspects of society under an authoritarian leadership regime.
In December 1925, the XIV Congress of the CPSU (b) took the course of industrialization. The goal of industrialization was to transform the USSR from a country importing machinery and equipment into a country producing them. It was planned to introduce machine technology into the entire national economy and, on this basis, achieve accelerated development. The predominant role was given to heavy industry.
The Bolsheviks rejected the economic concept of the “bourgeois” intelligentsia (prominent economists A.V. Chayanov, N.D. Kondratiev, S.N. Prokopovich, B.D. Brutskus), who saw agriculture and the market economy as the main source of national wealth. Their position, supported by People's Commissar of Finance G.Ya. Sokolnikov, was regarded as “agrarian” and “populist”.
Within the Bolshevik Party, two trends clashed on the issue of industrialization. “Left”, most consistently defended by L.D. Trotsky, E.L. Preobrazhensky and G.L. Pyatakov, stood for the priority development of heavy industry. The “right” direction, the main theoretician of which was N.I. Bukharin, and the conductor of these ideas in the Supreme Economic Council is F.E. Dzerzhinsky, insisted on continuing the NEP. Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council Pyatakov advocated planned, centralized industrialization with absolute priority to heavy industry. Trotsky, who supported him, insisted on establishing a “dictatorship of industry.”
F.E. Dzerzhinsky, who headed the Supreme Economic Council in 1924, advocated lung development industry, which would bring temporary but quick profits to the state and partially satisfy the needs of the peasants. In July 1926, a conflict occurred between Dzerzhinsky and Pyatakov regarding the economic orientation of the Supreme Economic Council. After the death of F.E. Dzerzhinsky’s course towards “super-industrialization” was continued by the new leaders of the Supreme Economic Council.
This course was most fully embodied in the first five-year plan (1928/29-1932/33), designed for the accelerated creation of socialist industry. The main task of the five-year plan was to transform the country from agrarian-industrial to industrial. A section devoted to industrial development, prepared under the leadership of Chairman of the Supreme Economic Council V.V. Kuibyshev, provided for an average annual increase in industrial output of 19-20%. Such high rates of development required maximum effort in the country. However, very soon these accelerated plans were revised towards a sharp increase. The new, “corrected” target figures had no real economic basis and by the end of the five-year plan had not been met for most types of products.
By April 1926, the creation of a united, very heterogeneous opposition, called the “Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc,” began. It included G.E. Zinoviev, L.B. Kamenev, who supported them L.D. Trotsky, G.L. Pyatakov, N.K. Krupskaya, Kh.G. Rakovsky, I.T. Smilga and others. The opposition opposed Stalin’s thesis about the possibility of building “socialism in one, separate country,” believing that Stalin was betraying not only the world, but also the Russian revolution for the sake of NEP. They also opposed the 10th Party Congress's ban on factional struggle and the resolution on the need to subordinate the party minority to the party majority.
The unification was fragile, since all its participants were united in their hostility towards Stalin, but did not have much political influence, having lost their positions in the party and state leadership in recent years. At the plenum of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in October 1926, the opposition was ideologically defeated, L.D. Trotsky, L.B. Kamenev and G.E. Zinoviev was removed from leadership positions in the party. In 1927 On the day of the 10th anniversary of the October Revolution, the opposition organized parallel official demonstrations of its supporters in Moscow and Leningrad. Leaders of the “Trotskyist-Zinoviev bloc” and 93 oppositionists, including L.B. Kamenev, were expelled from the party in 1927. At the beginning of 1928 L.D. Trotsky was exiled to Alma-Ata, and a year later - outside the USSR. Zinoviev and Kamenev, forced to “admit their mistakes,” were reinstated in the party. The XV Party Conference (1927) unanimously adopted Stalin’s theses on the possibility of “building socialism in one single country,” which meant his complete victory over his political opponents within the party on this issue.
Further disputes between opponents of NEP and its supporters led to the final formation of the “right opposition.” It was headed by N.I. Bukharin, A.I. Rykov and M.P. Tomsky, who had great influence in planning institutions. Bukharin's concept of industrialization was directly related to the continuation of the NEP, which envisaged, first of all, the consistent development of a market economy.
On September 30, 1928, Bukharin published “Notes of an Economist” in Pravda, in which he outlined the economic program of the opposition. He attributed the crisis in the country to defective planning, errors in pricing policies, shortages of industrial goods, and ineffective assistance to agricultural cooperation. In return, he proposed changing the economic course through certain concessions to the peasantry, such as opening markets, increasing purchase prices for bread, and, if necessary, purchasing grain abroad.
It was possible to create collective farms, according to Bukharin, only if they turned out to be more viable than individual farms, and industrialization is necessary only if it is “scientifically planned”, carried out taking into account the investment capabilities of the country and within the limits to which it will allow peasants to freely stock up on food. In one of his speeches, he called on peasants to “get rich without fear of any repression,” and believed that even wealthy peasants could “grow” into socialism.
However, a rejection of centralization in the economy would inevitably lead to a rejection of centralization in political life, undermining the party’s right to govern. Despite the high scientific level, Bukharin’s article became the reason for creating the myth of the “opposition on the right,” a dangerous deviation in the party, the ultimate goal of which is the restoration of capitalism in the USSR. In November 1928, the plenum of the Party Central Committee unanimously condemned the “right deviation”, from which Bukharin, Rykov and Tomsky dissociated themselves.
According to Stalin, the critical situation on the agricultural front, which led to the failure of the grain procurement campaign and the introduction of the rationing system in the cities in 1928, was caused by the actions of the kulaks and other hostile forces seeking to “undermine the Soviet system.” In June 1929, the press reported about the beginning of a new stage - “mass collectivization”. Following this, on October 31, 1929, Pravda called for complete collectivization, and Stalin’s article “The Year of the Great Turning Point” stated that “the middle peasants turned their face to the collective farms.” A decision was made to move to complete collectivization. This meant the end of NEP.
The construction of a powerful, independent military-industrial power with a nationalized economy, as the Soviet Union was seen by the Stalinist leadership, required, along with industrialization, a decisive transformation of the agricultural sector of the economy, in which privately owned, small peasant farming predominated. In itself, the creation of large-scale machine agricultural production, along with industrial modernization, was necessary. The question was how to achieve progress in agriculture. The path of forced continuous collectivization was opposed to the natural evolutionary process. Complete collectivization was carried out under conditions; when the material and technical base for its implementation was created simultaneously with the creation of the collective farm system.
A special commission headed by People's Commissar of Agriculture Ya.A. Yakovlev, developed a collectivization schedule, promulgated on January 5, 1930 by the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks “On the pace of collectivization and measures of state assistance to collective farm construction.” The resolution outlined the completion of complete collectivization of the grain regions in stages by the end of the five-year plan. In accordance with it, the North Caucasus, Lower and Middle Volga regions were subject to “complete collectivization” by the autumn of 1930, other grain-growing regions - a year later. The agricultural artel was recognized as the best form of collective farming, as it was more advanced than the partnership for cultivating the land. Land, livestock, and equipment in the artel were socialized.
Another commission headed by V.M. Molotov dealt with the issue of the fate of the kulaks on the basis of Stalin’s proclamation of the transition from a policy of limiting the kulaks to a policy of eliminating them as a class. “Dekulakization” became an integral part of the collectivization process. The kulaks were divided into three categories: the first included those who were engaged in counter-revolutionary activities; the second included those who did not offer active resistance. Soviet power, but, being exploiters, “contributed to the counter-revolution.” These two categories were subject to arrest and deportation to remote areas of the country (Siberia, Kazakhstan), and their property was confiscated. Kulaks of the third category, “loyal to the Soviet regime,” were condemned to resettle within their region to uncultivated lands.
According to established practice, it was customary to classify as kulaks everyone who hired at least one seasonal worker, owned agricultural machinery slightly less primitive than an ordinary plow, or kept two horses or four cows. In the 1920s The kulaks comprised approximately 750 thousand to 1 million families, but their economic situation suffered greatly after the grain procurement crisis due to constantly rising taxes. As a result, tens of thousands of middle peasants were subjected to dispossession. In some areas, from 80 to 90% of the middle peasants were condemned as “subkulak members”; their guilt was that they evaded collectivization. According to modern data, about 5 million people were dispossessed and exiled.
To carry out collectivization, the authorities mobilized 25 thousand workers. Through the forces of local authorities and the “twenty-five thousand people”, the universal forced unification of individual farmers into communes began, when not only the means of production, but also personal subsidiary plots were socialized. Every decade, newspapers published percentage data on collectivized farms, but often these data were artificially inflated by local authorities, and many collective farms existed only on paper. The result of such “victories” was long-term disorganization of agricultural production.
A reaction to what was happening was Stalin’s article “Dizziness from Success,” which appeared in Pravda on March 2, 1930. In it, Stalin condemned the so-called “excesses” - numerous violations of the principle of voluntariness in the organization of collective farms and dispossession, the victims of which were the middle peasants, as well as jumping from the agricultural cooperative to the commune, when small livestock, poultry, equipment, and buildings were socialized. All responsibility for the mistakes made was placed on the local leadership. The result of the article was the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of March 14, 1930, “On the fight against the distortion of the party line in the collective farm movement,” after which a mass withdrawal of peasants from collective farms began.
Since the autumn of 1930, the campaign of grain procurement by collective farms became a constant occurrence and initially brought the state more grain than it was able to obtain in the last years of NEP. This prompted the authorities to continue the collectivization policy. By July 1931, the percentage of collectivized farms was approximately 57.5%. The July Plenum of the Central Committee of the Party stated that the collective farm peasantry had become the central figure in agriculture, and collective farms had become the main producers of agricultural products.
But by the end of the summer of 1931, grain procurements began to fail: grain receipts decreased. A conflict was brewing and becoming inevitable between the peasants, who went to all sorts of tricks to preserve part of the harvest, on the one hand, and the authorities, on the other. The goal of overcoming the resistance of the peasants was the law that came into force on August 7, 1932, which made it possible to sentence people to deportation for up to ten years for damage caused to the collective farm.
The result of excessive pressure on the peasantry was a terrible famine in the Volga region, Ukraine, the North Caucasus and Kazakhstan, from which 4 to 5 million people died in Ukraine alone. Unlike 1921, when the famine was officially recognized and the authorities asked for international assistance, information about the mass famine of 1932-1933 is limited. in Ukrainian villages were completely denied by the government and were hidden even within the country.
After this tragedy, the government was forced to reconsider its procurement methods. By a resolution of the Party Central Committee of January 19, 1933, procurement was declared an integral part of a mandatory tax levied by the state and not subject to local revision. The state assumed control over the size of sown areas and harvests on collective farms, despite the fact that, according to the charter of the agricultural artel, these issues were subject only to the general meeting of collective farmers.
In 1935, at the Second All-Union Congress of Collective Farmers, a new Model Charter of the Agricultural Artel was adopted (instead of the 1930 Charter), which determined the way of life in the village for many decades to come. The land was assigned to collective farms for “eternal use”; a brigade method of labor and payment based on workdays were established. Collective farms were serviced by agricultural machinery, which was concentrated at state machine and tractor stations (MTS).
Contrary to expectations, collectivization did not lead to a visible increase in agricultural production. Although the card system was abolished in cities in 1935, in the 1936-1940s. gross agricultural output remained at the level of 1924-1928, i.e. pre-collective farm village. At the same time, collective farms made it possible to significantly increase the state's procurement of agricultural products, especially grain. In 1935, when 98% of all cultivated land in the country was socialist property, the state confiscated more than 45% of all agricultural products from the village, i.e. three times more than in 1928. The state bought it at prices that barely covered 20% of the cost.
To attach peasants to the land and collective farm at the turn of 1932-1933. A passport regime with registration at a specific place of residence was introduced. Passports were issued only to city residents, and collective farmers did not receive them. The collectivization policy, accompanied by the use of coercive measures, contributed to the strengthening of the command-administrative system. Some time later, during the period of industrialization, equally harsh police and bureaucratic methods were applied to other social groups.
Industrial modernization was carried out during the years of three pre-war five-year plans: I-1928/29-1932/33; II- 1933-1937; III - 1938-1942 (was interrupted in June 1941 due to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War). In less than three five-year plans, new industries were created: machine tool, aviation, tractor, automobile, chemical, etc. 8,900 enterprises of union importance were built. The basis for industrialization was the European part of the RSFSR and Ukraine, where old industrial areas were located and the bulk of the population lived. The regions of the Urals and Siberia also underwent industrial restructuring, where since the late 1930s. The construction of backup enterprises was intensively carried out.
Socialist competition played a significant role in the success of the first five-year plans. Through counter plans, it made it possible to sharply increase labor productivity through enthusiasm, a conscious and selfless attitude towards work. The winners began to be awarded the title of Hero of Socialist Labor (I.V. Stalin was the first to receive this title).
The very idea of socialist competition was nothing more than an appeal to the enthusiasm of the working class, a way to best qualities and the aspirations of people to serve socialist construction, did not imply material reward. Stalin’s work “On the Question of Agrarian Policy in the USSR” substantiated an idea that largely repeated the ideas of E.L. Preobrazhensky that workers, unlike capitalists, can be content with minimal profits or not care about them at all. It is no coincidence that the thesis was substantiated in 1929, when the return on the socialized means of production decreased. At the same time, engineers and technicians understood from the very beginning that any record that was not confirmed by appropriate measures for the rational organization of labor would soon lead to the disorganization of production. For ordinary workers, the next “labor feat” turned into an arbitrary and general increase in production standards.
In the summer of 1935, the Stakhanov movement arose, named after the Donetsk miner A.G. Stakhanov. His initiative to repeatedly exceed daily value developed and acquired the character of a whole movement in various industries. The party leadership especially emphasized the revolutionary nature of the movement.
At the same time, measures were taken to strengthen labor discipline. The powers of enterprise directors were significantly increased. Was introduced new system wages - piecework, in accordance with the law of 1931, the volume of social benefits was made directly dependent on the continuity of length of service at the enterprise. In September 1932, mandatory work books were introduced, in which all previous places of work were noted. The introduced registration system contributed to the reduction in labor turnover. Failure to show up for work was severely punished by the law of November 15, 1932, which provided for immediate dismissal, deprivation of food cards (until 1935) and eviction from the occupied space. By a decree of January 8, 1939, any delay of more than 20 minutes was equivalent to an unjustified absence, and repeated lateness led to dismissal. The introduction of a whole complex of such measures expressed the authorities’ desire to achieve an increase in labor productivity through non-economic coercion.
Under new legislation adopted on July 10, 1934, a Special Conference was created - an unconstitutional extrajudicial body in the state security system. The concept of the new “socialist” legality of the USSR Prosecutor General A.Ya. Vyshinsky removed the formula of the “presumption of innocence” from the legal language. It was believed that the court, in principle, cannot establish the objective truth, since the crime cannot be reproduced, therefore the goal of the court is not to search for the truth, but to establish the “probability” of the guilt of the accused. Objective evidence was not required if a person admitted to committing a crime. A person’s confession, obtained under such circumstances, became the main argument of the prosecution. If there was no confession, the possibility of complicity and the presence of a criminal intent were sufficient. The responsibility of all defendants became equal regardless of the degree of complicity.
Political processes were supposed to maintain in people a sense of the drama of the moment and the need to fight the machinations of underground enemy organizations, rooted in the pre-revolutionary past. Many of the accused, declared spies, saboteurs, saboteurs, were allegedly former agents of the tsarist secret police, and therefore enemies in hiding, also associated with the underground “Trotskyist-Zinovievite center” intending to overthrow the Soviet government. These processes pursued a specific goal - to achieve the final political defeat of all those who disagreed with the general line of the party and those who were simply dissatisfied.
On December 1, 1934, SM was killed. Kirov, member of the Politburo, secretary of the Central Committee and Leningrad State Committee of the party. A new resolution adopted on the same day on the procedure for considering charges of preparing or committing terrorist acts placed the investigation and trial in these cases in conditions that precluded an objective clarification of all the circumstances of the case. No more than ten days were allotted for the investigation. Cases were considered without a prosecutor or lawyer. Appeal and pardon were not allowed. The sentence to capital punishment was carried out immediately.
The OGPU was transformed into the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD), which was successively headed by G.G. Yagoda, N.I. Yezhov, who were gradually turned from performers into “scapegoats”, and then L.P. Beria, who managed to survive Stalin. In the list of the first Soviet government approved by the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, Lenin was named first, Stalin last, and 13 people between them. Of these, only three after Lenin died a natural death, the rest were declared “enemies of the people” and repressed.
Repressions of the 1930s finally strengthened the personal positions of Stalin and his supporters in the government apparatus. First, a broad campaign was launched against those figures who were held responsible for distorting the party line in its implementation. Then Stalin's supporters were appointed to many key positions in the party and state. At the 17th Party Congress held in 1934, the idea of the victory of the general course of the Central Committee in socialist construction was affirmed, and I.V. personally made an outstanding contribution to this victory. Stalin, who was recognized as the only leader of the party and the people. In addition, the congress officially announced the exchange of party tickets, undertaken to restore order in the structure of the party apparatus.
On December 5, 1936, a new Constitution was adopted, according to Stalin, the most democratic in the world. It marked the victory of socialism. Universal suffrage and direct secret voting were introduced. But actual practice made the elections uncontested: a single deputy candidate was nominated, selected by the party bodies. At the height of mass repression and lawlessness, the articles of the Constitution solemnly announced the introduction of the principle of openness in all trials, confirmed the right of the accused to defense, proclaimed freedom of the press and assembly, inviolability of the person, home and correspondence. Every citizen was declared the right to work, rest, and education.
In March 1939, at the 18th Party Congress, the thesis was adopted on the construction of socialism in the USSR in the main and the transition to the construction of communism. This was the ideological formulation of the party’s general course to strengthen the role of the state as a whole and its central apparatus to create a powerful military-industrial power.
It was in the 1930s. a model has formed in the country economic development, many of whose features survived into the 1990s. Huge investments in priority sectors - mechanical engineering, mining, electricity production - were carried out to the detriment of the standard of living of the population, since the production of consumer goods, the development of light industry and agriculture were relegated to the background. Despite a noticeable increase in the volume of military production, it was ensured by a decrease in the production of metal-intensive branches of non-military industry, which further unbalanced the economy on the eve of the war.
On average, industrial production growth in the 1930s was high and amounted to 15-18% per year, which was explained both by the low starting level and by the command methods of managing a planned economy. Positive result was that accelerated industrialization allowed the USSR to achieve economic independence from the West in the supply of strategic materials and equipment. The country has overcome its absolute gap with the leading powers. This allowed Stalin to declare in the late 1930s. about the transformation of the USSR from an agricultural to an industrial country.
37. The formation of the administrative-command system in the USSR in the 20-30s.
In the 1920s, a political system began to take shape in the USSR, under which the state exercised absolute control over all areas of social life.
The Bolshevik Party became the main link in the state structure. The most important government decisions were first discussed within the circle of party leaders - the Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), which in 1921 included V.I. Lenin, G.E., Zinoviev, L.B. Kamenev, I. V. Stalin, L. D. Trotsky, etc. Then they were approved by the Central Committee of the RCP (b), and only after that all issues were enshrined in decisions of state, i.e., Soviet bodies. All leading government posts were occupied by party leaders: V.I. Lenin - Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars; M.I. Kalinin - Chairman of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee; I.V. Stalin - People's Commissar for Nationalities, etc.
At the Tenth Congress of the RCP (b), a secret resolution was adopted “On the unity of the party,” which prohibited the creation in the RCP (b) of factions or groups that had a point of view different from the party leadership. However, this decision did not stop the internal party struggle. The illness of V.I. Lenin, and then his death in January 1924, complicated the situation in the party. J.V. Stalin became the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b). Different understandings of the principles and methods of socialist construction, personal ambitions, the desire to occupy a leading position in the party and state (L. D. Trotsky, L. B. Kamenev, G. E. Zinoviev, etc.), their rejection of Stalinist methods of leadership - all this caused opposition speeches in the Politburo of the party, in a number of local party committees, and in the press. By pitting political opponents against each other and skillfully interpreting their statements as anti-Leninist, J.V. Stalin consistently eliminated his opponents. L.D. Trotsky was expelled from the USSR in 1929, L.B. Kamenev, G.V. Zinoviev and their supporters were repressed in 30s.
J.V. Stalin concentrated enormous power in his hands, placing cadres loyal to him in the center and in the localities. A personality cult of J.V. Stalin was taking shape.
In the 1920s, the Bolshevik leadership dealt a blow to the remaining opposition political parties. In 1922, newspapers and magazines of the left socialist parties were closed.
In the summer of 1922, a public trial of Socialist Revolutionary leaders accused of terrorist activities was held in Moscow. In the mid-20s. The last underground groups of right-wing Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks were liquidated. A one-party political system was finally established in the country.
Through the system of secret employees of the Cheka - OGPU (United State Political Administration - since 1924), control was established over the political sentiments of civil servants, intelligentsia, workers and peasants. Secret investigation agencies isolated all active opponents of the Bolshevik regime in prisons and concentration camps, and punitive measures affected all segments of the population. Following dispossession, repressive measures were taken against the urban population.
Repressions were accompanied by violations of the law. Extrajudicial bodies were created in the state security system, whose decisions on issues of repression were not subject to control. Installed new order handling cases of terrorist acts. Their consideration was carried out within 10 days without the participation of the defense and prosecution.
Command-administrative methods of managing the socio-political and cultural life of the country were strengthened. Many public organizations were liquidated.
In the mid-30s, repressions against the command cadres of the Red Army intensified (M. N. Tukhachevsky, I. E. Yakir, I. P. Uborevich, A. I. Egorov, V. K. Blyukher).
Tens of thousands of innocent people were sentenced to imprisonment in the State Administration of Camps (GULAG).
The number of people imprisoned in them increased from 179 thousand in 1930 to 996 thousand in 1937.
By the mid-30s, an administrative-command system had developed in the USSR. Its most important features were: the centralization of the economic management system, the merging of political management with economic management, the “seizure of the state by the party,” the destruction of civil liberties, the unification of public life, and the cult of the national leader.
38. FORMATION OF THE USSR: REASONS AND PRINCIPLES FOR CREATION OF THE UNION.
By the beginning of the 20s, several independent state entities existed on the territory of the former Russian Empire: the RSFSR, the Ukrainian, Belarusian, Azerbaijani, Armenian and Georgian Soviet Republics, the Far Eastern Republic, the Bukhara and Khorezm People's Soviet Republics.
During the civil war, in order to more effectively repel anti-Soviet forces, a military-political alliance was concluded between the RSFSR, Ukraine and Belarus (June 1919).
With the end of the war, economic cooperation between the republics remained. In 1920 - 1922 All Soviet republics entered into bilateral agreements on an economic and diplomatic union with the RSFSR and among themselves. The republics transferred to the government of the RSFSR the right to provide and protect their interests in the international arena. Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia formed the Transcaucasian Soviet Socialist Federation (TSFSR) in 1992.
The tasks of restoring and developing the economy of the republics, strengthening the Soviet political system and their defense capability required the improvement of existing treaty-federal ties. It was necessary to clarify the relationship between the republics, to specify their rights and responsibilities.
In August 1922, a commission was formed to prepare a bill on new form state association J.V. Stalin developed a plan for “autonomization”. In accordance with it, it was envisaged that the Ukrainian, Belarusian and Transcaucasian republics would be included in the RSFSR on the basis of autonomy. This plan infringed on the sovereign rights of peoples, so most of the leaders of the republics spoke out against it.
In September - November 1922, after discussing the issue of the form of state unification, V.I. Lenin’s idea of forming a union state as a federation of equal republics was adopted.
On December 30, 1922, the First All-Union Congress of Soviets approved the Declaration and Treaty on the Formation of the USSR. The subjects of the USSR were the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the BSSR, and the ZSFSR.
In January 1924, the Second Congress of Soviets of the USSR adopted the Constitution, which legislated the formation of the USSR. The form of government of nations was proclaimed to be a federation of republics with the right to freely secede from the union and independently resolve issues of domestic policy, justice, education, health care and social security. Relations with foreign states, foreign trade, management of transport and communications were the functions of the union departments. The All-Union Congress of Soviets became the supreme legislative body, and in the period between congresses - the bicameral Central Executive Committee: the Council of the Union and the Council of Nationalities. Executive power belonged to the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR. Under the Council of People's Commissars, the All-Union People's Commissariats, the State Bank, and the State Planning Committee were formed. The United State Political Directorate (OGPU) was established under the Council of People's Commissars to combat counter-revolution, espionage and terrorism. The Constitution established a single union citizenship for citizens of all republics. The multi-stage elections and open voting system were maintained. Exploiting elements and ministers of religious cults were still deprived of their voting rights.
In 1924 - 1925 The Uzbek SSR, the Turkmen SSR, and in 1929 the Tajik SSR were formed. All newly formed republics became part of the USSR.
INDUSTRIALIZATION IN THE USSR: METHODS, RESULTS, PRICE.
By the end of 1925, the country's national economy was restored. The most important task of economic development was the transformation of the country from an agricultural to an industrial one, overcoming technical backwardness, ensuring economic independence and strengthening defense capabilities. An urgent need was the modernization of the economy, the main condition of which was the technical improvement (re-equipment) of the entire national economy.
The course towards industrialization was proclaimed by the XIV Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in December 1925. The country's leadership set the task of transforming the USSR from a country importing machinery and equipment into a country producing them. The congress documents substantiated the need for maximum development of the means of production (group “A”).
The sources of funds for industrialization were: income from light industry and agriculture; profits from the state monopoly on foreign trade, taxes on Nepmen and state loans from the population. An important source of resources for industrialization was the labor enthusiasm of the working people, which manifested itself in mass “socialist competition”: in the shock movement (since 1929) and the Stakhanov movement (since 1935).
Industrialization was carried out during the pre-war five-year plans: the first - 1928-1932, the second - 1933-1937.
The European part of the RSFSR and Ukraine became the base for industrialization. At the same time, the regions of the Urals and Siberia underwent industrial restructuring. In Transcaucasia and Central Asia, the emphasis was on the construction of Group B enterprises.
During the years of the first two five-year plans, new industries were created: machine tool, aviation, tractor, automobile, chemical, etc.
8,900 enterprises of union significance were built. Among the largest enterprises put into operation were: Dneproges (1932), Magnitogorsk and Kuznetsk metallurgical plants (1932), three tractor factories (Stalingrad - 1930, Kharkov - 1931, Chelyabinsk - 1933) , agricultural engineering plants in Rostov-on-Don (Rostselmash - 1930) and combine harvester manufacturing plants in Zaporozhye, Kuznetsk coal basin, Moscow metro, White Sea-Baltic Canal, Moscow-Volga Canal and many defense factories.
Industrial production growth in the 1930s averaged 15–18% per year. Such high growth rates were ensured by a low starting level and the command method of managing a planned economy. Market incentives could not provide such industrial growth.
Forced industrialization allowed the USSR to achieve economic independence from the West for strategic supplies. The import of more than 100 types of industrial products from abroad was stopped. In terms of absolute volumes of industrial production, the USSR in 1937 came in second place after the USA. However, industrialization policies had little impact on other sectors. Manual labor predominated in construction and the agricultural sector. Light industry was chronically lagging behind. There was a shortage of trained personnel in all branches of production.
Industrialization ensured full employment of the working population. By 1931, unemployment in the USSR was eliminated, and the last labor exchange was closed. At the end of the 30s, J.V. Stalin announced the transformation of the USSR from an agricultural to an industrial country.
A program to combat the kulaks was adopted. The “kulaks” were divided into three categories: counter-revolutionary elements; enemies who do not offer active resistance; loyal to Soviet power.
The first two categories were subject to arrest and deportation to Siberia and Kazakhstan with confiscation of property. The third moved to virgin lands within the region. Dispossession commissions worked locally (secretary of the party committee, chairman of the executive committee of the local Soviet, head of the local GPU).
As a result, from January to March 1930 alone, over two thousand anti-collective farm uprisings occurred. In 1930, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks issued a resolution “On the fight against distortions of the party line in the collective farm movement.” A mass exodus of peasants from collective farms began; the pace of grain procurements decreased sharply.
The authorities were forced to take the following measures:
- Severe punishments were introduced for petty theft of collective farm property;
- 25 thousand workers were sent to the villages for collectivization;
- the apparatus was cleaned due to sabotage of grain procurements;
- food detachments were revived for the purpose of audits and punitive expeditions.
Extortions from collective farms reached 50-60% of the harvest, but the state thus received 2 times more grain than in the last years of the NEP. The selected grain was mainly supplied to Germany in exchange for loans for the purchase of industrial equipment.
On the eve of collectivization and during it, zoning was carried out (1926-1929). The old administrative structure (province - district - volost) was replaced by a new one: edge (region) - district - district. In 1930, intermediate links - districts (except for national districts) were eliminated. At the second stage of zoning (1934-35), the disaggregation of territories and regions took place.
After the completion of complete collectivization, village assemblies as bodies of community self-government were abolished. Instead, agricultural production conferences at village councils, rural public courts, and groups of the poor began to work. During collectivization, new management structures are formed. In 1929 - the Union-Republican People's Commissariat of Agriculture, in 1932 the People's Commissariat of Grain and Livestock State Farms was separated from it. A collective farm center was formed under the People's Commissariat of Agriculture; procurement work was supervised by the Procurement Committee (Komzag) under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR.
Control over agricultural production was exercised through state machine and tractor stations (MTS). Collective farms rented equipment and paid with produce. Procurement into the “bins of the Motherland” was a mandatory part of the tax; failure to comply with it entailed property and criminal sanctions. The opening of collective farm markets was permitted if mandatory procurements were fulfilled. In 1934, new tax rates for individual owners were established.
In 1935, complete collectivization was completed. Its results were consolidated by the “Approximate Charter of the Agricultural Artel” (1933):
1) land plots, livestock, equipment, and outbuildings were transferred into collective ownership;
2) collective farms were obliged to conduct farming according to the state plan;
3) admission to the collective farm was carried out by the general meeting;
4) the order of fulfillment of obligations was established: supplies to the state and MTS, the creation of seed funds and social support funds, payments to collective farmers for workdays (on a residual basis);
5) the main form of labor organization is a team; as a form of payment - a workday.
In the industrial sector, the first five-year plan envisaged achieving an increase in industrial production by 136%, an increase in labor productivity by 110%, and a reduction in the cost of industrial products by 35%. Unconditional priority was given to heavy industry (78% of capital investments).
The main sources of funds were agriculture; forced loans from the population; emission of money (the money supply increased twice as fast as industrial output); vodka trade; export of grain, fuel, timber. At the same time, these colossal injections were unable to stimulate high rates of industrial growth (in 1928-1929 - 23%; in 1933 - 5%). The plans were not implemented due to a lack of raw materials, fuel, and equipment. Scarce resources were distributed among impact projects (50-60 construction projects), which were set as an example for the whole country.
The first five-year plan was not fulfilled according to any indicator. The second five-year plan was also not fully implemented: out of 46 indicators, only 10 were achieved. At the same time, the focus on the intensive path of development played a positive role: labor productivity doubled. In just a few years, from a country importing cars, the USSR turned into a country producing equipment.
There were also many contradictions in the personnel policy of the young state. In 1928, a campaign was launched to combat the sabotage of the “old specialists”, which resulted in the massive expulsion of old personnel from the State Planning Committee, the Supreme Economic Council, the People's Commissariat for Agriculture and the People's Commissariat of Finance. The promotion of workers from enterprises (“practitioners”) to leadership positions did not improve the quality of management. The fight against excesses began, the condemnation of the so-called “special food”. Some previously introduced discriminatory measures against specialists were abolished, including restricting the access of their children to higher education.
Since September 1932, enterprises have introduced work books recording all places of work, as well as a registration system. In the same year, penalties for failure to show up for work were established, such as dismissal, deprivation of food cards, and eviction from living space. The power of directors increased, the management triangle (secretary of the party committee, director, chairman of the trade union committee) was abolished and unity of command of directors was introduced.
Since the late 1920s. There is an increase in planning and regulatory principles in the economy. The authorities called on enterprises to turn their attention to the plan. Since 1929, trusts and syndicates have been guided exclusively by planned indicators. In 1932, a ban was introduced on shops and private shops. In 1929, the state carried out a credit reform, as a result of which commercial lending was banned, the State Bank became the only distributor of short-term loans for special purposes. From that time on, lending plans were drawn up jointly by the Supreme Economic Council and the State Bank, that is, the credit system was centralized.
Public administration in the 1930s. continued the trend of combining functional and sectoral leadership principles. The functional principle of management is guidance on individual areas of activity: planning, financing, material and technical supply (Gosplan, People's Commissariat of Finance, OGPU). The sectoral management principle is the management of a certain sector of the economy from one body in all areas of activity.
In the 1930s There was a gradual strengthening of the sectoral management principle, as evidenced by the formation of a system of sectoral industrial people's commissariats, which took place in several stages:
- 1932 - 1934 - abolition of the Supreme Economic Council and the creation, on the basis of this structure, of the People's Commissariats of the heavy, light, forestry and food industries;
- 1936 - 1937 - disaggregation of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry; it separates the independent People's Commissariat of Defense Industry and the People's Commissariat of Mechanical Engineering;
- 1939 - general disaggregation of industrial people's commissariats.
Six new people's commissariats were created on the basis of the People's Commissariat of Heavy Industry; on the basis of the People's Commissariat of Defense Industry - four; on the basis of the People's Commissariat of Mechanical Engineering - three. Other people's commissariats were also disaggregated. As a result, the number of all-Union People's Commissariats increased to 25 by 1940; the number of union-republican ones is up to 16. To coordinate the work of such a significant number of departments under the Council of People's Commissars, several economic councils were created in 1940, uniting the people's commissariats of related industries.
So, in the USSR in the 1930s. An administrative-command management system was formed - a special type of public administration, characterized by the predominant use of directive methods and the widespread use of administrative coercion in the economy.
The objective prerequisites for the formation of the AKS were:
- the need to implement a unified economic policy aimed at equalizing the levels of development of different regions;
- the very nature of the socialist system, based on the replacement of private property with “public property”;
- solving the problems of accelerated modernization of the country in difficult foreign economic circumstances.
There were also subjective factors in the formation of the AKS:
- low level the general and political culture of the population, which allowed a narrow layer of the party-Soviet bureaucracy to usurp power and simply dispose of state property;
- voluntaristic methods of leadership, underestimation of the national characteristics of individual territories on the part of the ruling elite.
The administrative-command management system created by the Bolsheviks was not something alien to Russian traditions. It corresponded to the internal predisposition of the people precisely to this type of state building.
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